Evolution in an Urbanizing World
Artificial light at night (ALAN) is one of the most significant environmental changes of the past century.1 In 2020, there were approximately 361 million streetlights globally,2 and ALAN continues to increase at an alarming rate of 7%-10% per year.3 But how does this rapid expansion affect wildlife, particularly nocturnal creatures like bats? Research suggests that... Continue Reading →
Domestic Cats (Felis silvestris catus; Felis catus) are a human commensal, said to have started their relationship with us during the era of the first settled farmers (approx. 12.000 years ago) within the Fertile Crescent region of the middle east.1 We took them into our homes and slowly transformed them into the royalty that a lot... Continue Reading →
Who would ever have expected to see plovers on the banks of the Huangpu River in Shanghai? The Huangpu River is the "mother river" of Shanghai that flows north throughout Shanghai. It passes some of the most population-dense regions of the city, including Lujiazui and the Bund, and provides green paths on both banks for... Continue Reading →
By Veerle Langezaal During the Covid-19 lockdowns, a grassroots movement emerged where botanists in France, the UK, and the Netherlands began chalking plant species names on sidewalks. This initiative aimed to educate communities about the ecological importance of these plants, challenging the perception of them as mere weeds. This movement has since evolved into a... Continue Reading →
Walid-Dani Kaki “In none of his works did Nature show her originality more than in insects”(Pliny the Elder) In recent years we have seen a steady decline in biodiversity, with devastating consequences for the natural world and human populations. The tendency of people to migrate to urban areas has led to their chaotic development at... Continue Reading →
The City Nature Challenge is an annual competition among hundreds of international cities to increase awareness of urban biodiversity. Last year’s challenge totaled 1,694,877 observations, 50,176+ species, and 67,220 participants across 450+ cities worldwide. Check if your city is participating in this year’s challenge! If not, join the global project this year and sign-up your city to participate in 2024’s challenge! This year’s challenge is active starting tomorrow, April 28, to... Continue Reading →
Going Wild in the City--Animal Feralization and Its Impact on Biodiversity in Urban Environments T Göttert, G Perry Abstract Domestication describes a range of changes to wild species as they are increasingly brought under human selection and husbandry. Feralization is the process whereby a species leaves the human sphere and undergoes increasing natural selection in... Continue Reading →
Check out Lauren Cook's 'The New Urban Jungle' to explore ways to make your backyard a suitable habitat for urban wildlife! https://twitter.com/UNBiodiversity/status/1632788135401619470 Featured image: screenshot from 'The New Urban Jungle' video
Check out this video of Zoë Rossman discussing the vibrant and diverse wildlife in Albuquerque, New Mexico! https://twitter.com/ABQcitynature/status/1635393208393023488 Zoë is a wildlife photographer and Ph.D. candidate studying urban coyotes (Canis latrans), and other large mammals, at the University of New Mexico. In 2021, she sat down with Laura Paskus of New Mexico PBS to discuss... Continue Reading →
Harnessing soil biodiversity to promote human health in cities X Sun, C Liddicoat, A Tiunov, B Wang, Y Zhang, C Lu, Z Li, S Scheu, MF Breed, S Geisen, YG Zhu Abstract Biodiversity is widely linked to human health, however, connections between human health and soil biodiversity in urban environments remain poorly understood. Here, we... Continue Reading →
Temperature and not landscape composition shapes wild bee communities in an urban environment Costanza Geppert, Andree Cappellari, Daria Corcos, Valerio Caruso, Pierfilippo Cerretti, Maurizio Mei, Lorenzo Marini Abstract 1. More than half of the world’s population lives in urban areas, a proportion that is expected to increase. Even if urbanisation is widely regarded as a... Continue Reading →
Uneven biodiversity sampling across redlined urban areas in the United States Diego Ellis-Soto, Melissa Chapman, Dexter H Locke Abstract Citizen science data has rapidly gained influence in urban ecology and conservation planning, but with limited understanding of how such data reflects social, economic, and political conditions and legacies. Understanding patterns of sampling bias across socioeconomic... Continue Reading →
Detecting patterns of vertebrate biodiversity across the multidimensional urban landscape Marina Alberti & Tianzhe Wang Abstract Explicit characterisation of the complexity of urban landscapes is critical for understanding patterns of biodiversity and for detecting the underlying social and ecological processes that shape them. Urban environments exhibit variable heterogeneity and connectivity, influenced by different historical contingencies,... Continue Reading →
Species diversity, distribution and habitat utilization of urban wildlife in a megacity of Bangladesh Mohammad Firoj Jaman, Abdur Razzaque Sarker, Mahabub Alam, Mokhlesur Rahman, Fazle Rabbe, Abu Sayeed Rana, Ashikur Rahman Shome, and Sakhawat Hossain Abstract Urban environments harbour many species of wildlife. Such environments may provide a wide range of benefits, although these species... Continue Reading →
Cities, defined as large human settlements of the contemporary human population, have been part of the “Old World” landscape for long time, including Europe. However, the current exponential increase of the urbanised landscape is an unprecedented phenomenon, which has an impact at multiple ecological scales. Urbanisation and its derived actions can fragment wildlife populations and... Continue Reading →
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